The Central Epidemic Command Center yesterday announced eight new cases of COVID-19 infections and three deaths, bringing the total number of confirmed cases in Taiwan to 306 and raising the total number of fatalities to five.
Minister of Health and Welfare Chen Shih-chung (陳時中), head of the center, said the new infections include seven imported cases and one domestic case.
The imported cases are three women and four men who returned to Taiwan from Egypt, the Philippines, the US and the UK between March 2 and March 22, and involve five clusters of cases.
Photo: Chiang Ying-ying, AP
Case No. 300 is a student at the same school in the UK as two previously confirmed cases; No. 302 is a student at a US school with six previously confirmed cases; and No. 305 had visited relatives in the Philippines and had close contact with a previously confirmed case during the trip, he said.
Chen said cases No. 303 and No. 304 visited the US with a group of 10 people, in which a member had tested positive for COVID-19.
The domestic case, No. 299, is a five-year-old boy who is the son of case No. 269, a man in his 30s who was also reported as a domestic case on Saturday, he said.
Chen said case No. 269, who is a Ministry of Transportation and Communications official working at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport, likely contracted the virus from case No. 277, a man in his 20s who tested positive a few days after returning from the Philippines on March 20.
Local media outlets reported that case No. 277 is a son of a ranking Tourism Bureau official, and that No. 277 had coffee with case No. 269 at the airport.
Centers for Disease Control (CDC) Deputy Director-General Chuang Jen-hsiang (莊人祥) said that case No. 299 attended school on Thursday last week, but developed a mild fever in the afternoon, so the preschool class — 17 people in all, including teachers and classmates — has been ordered to undergo 14-day mandatory home isolation.
Chen said the father of case No. 277, as well as three coworkers of case No. 269, have also been placed under home isolation.
The center reported one death on Sunday night and two yesterday. Case No. 34 had a serious heart condition when she was hospitalized, recovered from pneumonia slowly after treatment, but died of arrhythmia and heart failure, CDC Director-General Chou Jih-haw (周志浩) said.
Case No. 108 was a man in his 40s who led a tour group to Austria and the Czech Republic from March 5 to 14.
He had hypertension and poor cardiopulmonary function due to obesity, Chou said, adding that the man suffered respiratory distress on Wednesday last week and died of multiple organ failure.
The third fatality was case No. 170, a man in his 60s who had cancer and visited Spain before contracting COVID-19, Chou said.
The man had a serious case of pneumonia when he was hospitalized on Monday last week and died of acute multiple organ dysfunction, severe pulmonary infiltrates and respiratory failure.
LIMITS: While China increases military pressure on Taiwan and expands its use of cognitive warfare, it is unwilling to target tech supply chains, the report said US and Taiwan military officials have warned that the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) could implement a blockade within “a matter of hours” and need only “minimal conversion time” prior to an attack on Taiwan, a report released on Tuesday by the US Senate’s China Economic and Security Review Commission said. “While there is no indication that China is planning an imminent attack, the United States and its allies and partners can no longer assume that a Taiwan contingency is a distant possibility for which they would have ample time to prepare,” it said. The commission made the comments in its annual
DETERMINATION: Beijing’s actions toward Tokyo have drawn international attention, but would likely bolster regional coordination and defense networks, the report said Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s administration is likely to prioritize security reforms and deterrence in the face of recent “hybrid” threats from China, the National Security Bureau (NSB) said. The bureau made the assessment in a written report to the Legislative Yuan ahead of an oral report and questions-and-answers session at the legislature’s Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee tomorrow. The key points of Japan’s security reforms would be to reinforce security cooperation with the US, including enhancing defense deployment in the first island chain, pushing forward the integrated command and operations of the Japan Self-Defense Forces and US Forces Japan, as
‘TROUBLEMAKER’: Most countries believe that it is China — rather than Taiwan — that is undermining regional peace and stability with its coercive tactics, the president said China should restrain itself and refrain from being a troublemaker that sabotages peace and stability in the Indo-Pacific region, President William Lai (賴清德) said yesterday. Lai made the remarks after China Coast Guard vessels sailed into disputed waters off the Senkaku Islands — known as the Diaoyutai Islands (釣魚台) in Taiwan — following a remark Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi made regarding Taiwan. Takaichi during a parliamentary session on Nov. 7 said that a “Taiwan contingency” involving a Chinese naval blockade could qualify as a “survival-threatening situation” for Japan, and trigger Tokyo’s deployment of its military for defense. Asked about the escalating tensions
The Ministry of Economic Affairs said it plans to revise the export control list for strategic high-tech products by adding 18 items under three categories — advanced 3D printing equipment, advanced semiconductor equipment and quantum computers — which would require local manufacturers to obtain licenses for their export. The ministry’s announcement yesterday came as the International Trade Administration issued a 60-day preview period for planned revisions to the Export Control List for Dual Use Items and Technology (軍商兩用貨品及技術出口管制清單) and the Common Military List (一般軍用貨品清單), which fall under regulations governing export destinations for strategic high-tech commodities and specific strategic high-tech commodities. The
RSS